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U.S Housing Starts Decreased by 4.1% in December

January 19, 2012

According to this month’s U.S. Census Bureau report regarding the new residential construction statistics for December 2011 there was a slight decrease in building permits and housing starts.

Privately owned Housing starts decreased in December 2011: the seasonally adjusted annual rate reached 657,000 compared with 685,000 in November 2011 – this is a 4.1% decrease; nevertheless, the annual rate for December 2011 was 24.9% above the December 2010 rate of 526,000.

The seasonally adjusted annual rate of building permits for privately owned housing reached in December 679,000 – a 0.1% decrease compared with November’s annual rate of 680,000. The December 2011 rate was 7.8% above the rate in December 2010.

This news provides a negative signal about the progress of the U.S real estate market.

As I have sited in previous posts, there is a supposed lagged (by one day) and negative relationbetween housing starts changes and gold price; i.e. as Housing starts annual rates decreases, gold price tends to rise the following day. Therefore, despite the current decline in gold price, it might rally tomorrow.

Current gold price, short term futures (February 2012 delivery) is traded at $1,657 per t oz. a $2.3 decrease as of 15:34*.

Euros to US dollar exchange rate is currently traded up at 1.2887 a 0.1842% increase as of 15:41*.

CurrentNymex crude oilprice, short term futures (February 2012 delivery) is traded up by 0.84% to $101.43 per barrel as of 15:34*.